Bynum students sending handmade dolls to Haiti

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, May 10, 2010

A mission team from Mid-Cities Church will be taking 86 ragdolls made by Bynum School students — and their relatives — to Haiti on Saturday.

The school contacted the church about taking the dolls because they knew Mid-Cities was planning another trip. "Anything to bring smiles to those kids' faces would be wonderful," said Hollie Carrasco, who is making her first trip to Haiti with the team.

Linda Unruh, known as Nana at Bynum, said nine kids made 46 dolls, and the mother of one of the students plus two of his aunts made 40 in March and April.

"When I presented the idea to (the kids), they were more than willing to help out," Unruh said. "When I told them the children (in Haiti) had lost everything, they didn't think it was right."

She said the students loved doing the project. "Every time they finished one, it was like a big victory dance," Unruh said.

Connor Bond and Alexis Wilson, both 14, think it's pretty cool their work will be making its way to Haiti. "I'm glad we could help out," Wilson said, adding the tragedy "broke my heart."

Along with the dolls, the nine-member church team will deliver medical supplies to Haiti, ravaged by an earthquake in January. They will stay a week, Carrasco said.

She added the group has been planning their trip the past few weeks. They are not expecting the scale of trauma and injury seen in the first church trip made about three weeks after the quake. However, there will be malaria, Dengue fever and other ailments.

The team will take medicine, wound care, IV tubing and saline, among many other items. "It's going to be an indescribable experience for all of us," Carrasco said.